Among creative team activities, few smell as good as this one. In a 90-minute private candle-making workshop at a Bay Area art studio, your group learns the essentials of candle making, blends a custom fragrance from ten unique scents and pours a candle in the color and vessel of your choosing, then leaves with a completely custom candle for home, rituals or gifting.
The private workshop is priced at $65 per guest for groups of 4 to 12 guests. It is beginner-friendly and no experience is required. It is a warm, welcoming class that lets you enjoy good company, inviting scents and a beautiful finished result.
What's Included
- A 90-minute private workshop for your group
- An introduction to fragrance families, pairings
Among creative team activities, few smell as good as this one. In a 90-minute private candle-making workshop at a Bay Area art studio, your group learns the essentials of candle making, blends a custom fragrance from ten unique scents and pours a candle in the color and vessel of your choosing, then leaves with a completely custom candle for home, rituals or gifting.
The private workshop is priced at $65 per guest for groups of 4 to 12 guests. It is beginner-friendly and no experience is required. It is a warm, welcoming class that lets you enjoy good company, inviting scents and a beautiful finished result.
What's Included
- A 90-minute private workshop for your group
- An introduction to fragrance families, pairings and notes
- A choice of ten unique scents to craft your own custom fragrance blend
- Your choice of wax color and vessel style, from a range of vessels provided by the studio
- A colorful mandala coloring activity while the wax sets
- A custom candle with the fragrance blend and color of your choosing to take home
How the Workshop Works
Your instructor starts with a short introduction to candle science and fragrance: how scents fall into families, which notes pair well and how to blend them into something that reflects your mood or intention. Each guest experiments with the scents, settles on a signature blend and picks a wax color. Then you choose a vessel. You are welcome to upcycle a meaningful vessel from home or pick from the studio's range, including beginner pottery pieces. While the candles set, the group slows down with a mindful, relaxing mandala coloring activity.
The studio's candle sessions are often themed around an intention for the season, and the finished candles are your own: a fragrance nobody else has, in a vessel you chose. A past guest celebrated a 16th wedding anniversary in this class and described it as a way to top off your spirit.
Why It Works for Groups
Scent is an easy conversation starter, and comparing blends around the table gets even quiet guests talking. That makes it one of the gentler crafty team building activities for coworkers, and with 4 to 12 guests it is sized for team building activities for small groups. It suits individuals and couples, a date idea, a team outing, a birthday or a bachelorette party.
It also fits the end of the year. As one of the cozier christmas team activities, the session gives each guest a handmade candle that doubles as a gift for mom, a partner or a friend. For anyone collecting fun team bonding ideas that feel restful rather than competitive, this one belongs near the top of the list.
About the Studio and Your Instructor
The host is a women-owned art classroom and pottery studio in the East Bay that specializes in beginners, with a focus on body awareness, mindfulness and having fun. It started in 2022 as a clay classroom in the owner's garage, grew into a sunny loft in North Oakland, and in July 2026 expanded into an art space in West Berkeley with a pottery studio, a craft area and a wood shop, a short walk from the Aquatic Park.
The owner-operator is a lifelong art educator and audio storyteller who has been captivated by clay in motion since age 13 and has worked with thousands of students since opening the studio. Their teaching style balances support with encouragement to experiment, and it draws on trauma-aware facilitation, neuroscience and open communication. The classroom is introvert-approved and playfully social, curious about different learning styles, and set to a playlist that is both calming and energizing.
Good to Know
- Beginner-friendly; no experience is required
- Bring an upcycled or sentimental vessel from home if you like; the studio also provides a range of vessels
- Private candle-making workshops require a minimum of 4 seats
- Let the studio know about any sensitivities or limitations before class
- Parking: a free public lot sits right off the exit ramp, the Aquatic Park half a block away has ample parking, and street parking on the block is rare, so please do not use the private lot shared with neighboring tenants
Plan Your Candle Workshop
Share your preferred date and group size of 4 to 12 guests to check availability. At $65 per guest with scents, wax, vessels, coloring activity and instruction included, it is a simple way to give a small group a calm, creative hour and a half and a custom candle to take home.
